Abstract [en]

People have trouble establishing good eating habits in spite of a constant flow of information about the negative effects of unhealthy food. Young children depend on the present adults, which implies that food habits of parents become the food habits of their children. The adults have control over the food available and what meals are served.

This quantitative study has carried out a dietary survey in families with young children. It is based on the National Food Administration (NFA) dietary recommendations about less saturated fat, less added sugar (sucrose), more dietary fibre and more fruit and vegetables.

Validated questions were used to estimate consumption frequencies in food intake of the participating parents and children. This study also investigates whether eating habits of children reflects the eating habits of their parents. Furthermore questions were asked about what difficulties there might be to gain healthy eating habits in the family.

Fifty-six parents with at least one child in the age of 1-6 chose to reply to the questionnaire distributed by five pre-schools in the district of Hagfors.

The results indicate that the eating habits of both parents and children could change for the better. The majority of parents and children do not achieve the dietary recommendations. The recommended less sugar intake is an exception, which the parents achieve. The children consume buns, biscuits and syrups and soft drinks too often. Consumption frequencies of the unhealthy in-between meals are lower in this survey compared to earlier nation-wide Swedish dietary surveys.

An examination of the parent/child pairs indicates that parent’s eating habits closely correspond to those of their children. There is no evidence of effect of parental control over the child’s food intake on consumption frequency of in-between meals. However those parents who use dessert as a bribe to encourage their child to eat more, have children who consume ice cream very often. Children who were not controlled in food intake consumed fruit and vegetables and cheese more often compared to children with parental control over food intake. This may imply that the children who are not controlled have better snack food intake and a greater preference for fruit and vegetables. Therefore it is possible to state that parental control has no positive effects on children’s food intake.

Many parents consider that healthy eating habits are no problem, yet many of them consume unhealthy food too often. Lack of time is the most reported difficulty.

Conclusions are that if eating habits in the future adult population is to be better, parent’s diet should be focus of change. Each parent needs to recognize the responsibility of him/her in the development of the child’s eating habits, partly by what is made available but most of all by the parental role model.